Q2 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



omy prevails, attributable to no other cause than that of climate. 

 "Even those nations occupying its boi'ders have not the method- 

 ical industry, the persevering application, or the business capacity 

 of those who occupm a central position in it." Buckle, in his 

 "History of Civilization " says: " Climate influences labor not 

 only by enervating the laborer, or invigorating him, but also by 

 the efiect which it produces on the regularity of his habits. Thus 

 we find that no people living in a very northern latitude, have 

 ever possessed that steady and unflinching industry for which the 

 inhabitants of the temperate regions are remarkable. The reason 

 for this becomes clear, when we remember that in the more north- 

 ern countries the severity of the weather, and, in some seasons, 

 the deficiency of light render it impossible for the people to con- 

 tinue their out-of-door employments. The result is that the work- 

 ing classes, being compelled to cease from their ordinary pursuits, 

 are rendered more prone to desultory habits ; the chain of their 

 industry is broken, and they lose the impetus which long-continued 

 and uninterrupted practice never fails to give. Hence there arises 

 a national character more fitful and capricious than that possessed 

 by a people whose climate permits the regular exercise of their 

 ordinary industry. 



Indeed, so powerful is this principle, that we may perceive its 

 operations even under the most opposite circumstances. It would 

 be difficult to conceive a greater difi'erence in governments, laws, 

 religion and manners, than that which distinguishes Sweden and 

 Norway on the one hand, from Spain and Portugal on the other. 

 But these four countries have one great point in common. In all 

 of them continued agricultural industry is impracticable. In the 

 two southern countries labor is interrupted by the heat, by the 

 dryness of the weather, and by the consequent state of the 

 soil. In the northern countries the same effect is produced by 

 the severity of the winter and the shortness of the days. The 

 consequence is that these four countries, though so different in 

 other respects, are all remarkable for a certain instability and 

 fickleness of character ; presenting a striking contrast to the more 

 regular and settled habits which are established in countries where 

 climate subjects the working classes to fewer interruptions, and 

 imposes on them the necessity of a more constant and unremitting 

 employment." 



When^we trace tlie isotherms of forty degrees and seventy de- 

 grees across the North American continent, the same diversity in 



